Mutual Situation
by Pretty Lazy
Summary: Stumbling through the Hollow Night in his search for Linne, Hyde comes across someone with the same goal—though with a different reason in mind. An inevitable fight comes to light as their first clashing clause resonates throughout the night's darkened skies. [A dramatization of Hyde VS Seth from Seth's Arcade Story.]


**Synopsis :** Stumbling through the Hollow Night in his search for Linne, Hyde comes across someone with the same goal—though with a reason in mind. An inevitable fight comes to light as their first clashing clause resonates through the night's darkened skies. [A dramatization of Hyde VS Seth from Seth's Arcade Story.]

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(—ነነነነ(—(—[][][][]—)—)ነነነነ—)

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…

_..._

… _Patter._

… _Patter._

… _Patter._

Hyde Kido never realized how large the city was until now. His footsteps kept collapsing onto each other for the longest time. In tandem, his body should have felt like it wanted to drop by now considering the area he's covered so far, but thanks to his extra training with Waldstein, it was simply incredible to how much he could move throughout this realm called _The Hollow Night_. Though, perhaps it was one of the side-effects of unlocking his EXS. That old man had been going on about how he should control the powers of EXS rather than let it control him for a greater effect.

Other than that little detail, he didn't really have the mindset to study all of the technical details that both Waldstein and Linne were laying now on him. It went into one ear and out the other. All he cared about was trying to help out Linne as much as he could, and then some more.

_Still…_

Hyde was trying to think of all the possible locations that this supposed _Abyss_ should be, because Linne and Waldstein should have been prioritizing their destination over there. He remembered Linne saying it was somewhere in the middle of _The Hollow Night_, but such a hint made Hyde clicked his tongue.

_Just _where _exactly is the damn middle!?_

To put it in simpler terms, _The Hollow Night_ devours a randomly select area of the city once every month. The size itself isn't something people could determine, so to say that the goal was in the middle of an undetermined area—it was pretty much a sick joke and a half. Linne and Waldenstein must have been having trouble trying to locate it too, considering how _The Hollow Night_ was still active, but maybe they didn't need to hunt that hard.

Those who unlocked their EXS can detect others who have done the same and there were a handful that had this ability, according to Linne. All they had to do was track down a _specific_ person who should have been holding out with the _Abyss_—the person codenamed as _Paradox_.

Unfortunately, Hyde could only detect the presence of EXS users that are within a close proximity, and that was to say, those who allow their EXS to be detected. He couldn't exactly help it—it's only been a single month ever since he was bitten by the shadow creatures named the Void, which forcefully unlocked it. Luckily, he wasn't part of the majority that would have _died _from it, but his normal life was in shambles now.

_There's too much thinking involved_…

Hyde slowed down and sighed. He had essentially made it from his house towards what was commonly known as 'The Riverside Plaza'. It wasn't hard to figure it out, since the construction of the new bridge overhanging the wide river was in the background, giving the atmosphere an oddly satisfying glare to it. Even though the Voids roam this realm, the Riverside Plaza had still looked as beautiful as it was when he came here with Orie, a classmate of his.

The thought of her rused through his mind.

_Man, I wonder what the hell Harada must be doing now. Must be home, enjoying a nice bath while I'm out here running around like I have my head cut off or something. This is just getting ridiculous though._

He may have thought about that, but if the option to tag himself out of this position ever arose, he wouldn't have taken the opportunity. He wasn't going to leave Linne alone to these trouble. Even if he wasn't in deep yet, the feeling of gratitude and the time he spent with Linne and even Waldstein (to an extent) was enough to make him double-down to the situation.

_Well, this Abyss thing or whatever, I guess it's not here. It has to be around the west area of the city though. I can even feel that surge of power. But man, I can't believe they just disappeared on me like that..._

Hyde brought up his weapon in his hand, looking at it solemnly. It slicked across with a bright bloodbathed colour, as lines energetically crossed over the blade. It ambience transferred brilliantly without the addition of a handguard. He tightened his grip on the pale-yellow hilt with contact only split by the black wrappings.

_But even with this…_

Theoretically, Hyde could give Linne what she was striving for, something that had come out of sheer luck when he was told to manifest his weapon for the first time—to have Linne disappear _permanently_.

A conclusion to her story—a swift _death _that would end her cycles of incarnation.

… _I can't. At least, not yet._

Hyde sighed once more from thinking about the inevitable end that he didn't want to come—a selfish demand that he knew it to be selfish. Somewhere, he wanted there to be another way to save Linne from her cycle. There just _had_ to be a better way.

He turned on his heel, preparing to leave the area. There wasn't any reason to linger around here anyways.

However, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Without turning his head, it looked to be a blue blur out in the far distance, but when he redirected his attention to the mysterious object, he was more than surprised to see it to be exactly what he originally saw—a blue blur, specifically a sphere—hanging in mid air.

_W-What the heck…?_

Hyde felt like it was watching him carefully.

Linne and Waldstein had only told him about the Voids and Amnesia, the organization that consisted of various others who have unlocked their EXS and wanted more power. If it wasn't a Void, then by process of elimination—

—the blue suddenly _activated_ with an audible shattering sound.

It shot an arrow at a rapid speed right towards him.

Hyde reacted—he took a step forwards, slashing the katana before him and breaking the materialization apart into pieces and from pieces, they disappeared into the air, as if the arrow never existed. However, his senses started to heighten as he looked around on alert. He widened his eyes when he saw things that weren't there a second before.

There were blue orbs floating around almost everywhere—and they shot at Hyde systematically, sounding like a cabinet of glass was dropped onto the road one by one.

One by one, the arrows came, forcing Hyde to smash each one to pieces. The fragments that shattered that pulsed some type of energy as they flung themselves past Hyde, like some sort of static field on each one. Nevertheless, it was hard to keep up, but his body kept moving without any notion of thought.

Soon, it was empty and Hyde was already aware that he came across someone that was after his life. He had already come across a fight against some red-haired guy that called him a clownfish. To be honest, he was still feeling the fatigue from that battle that ended up in a stalemate. He knew he needed to hold back some energy to find Linne, or he would have been tired out before _The Hollow Night_ ends naturally.

Now—who the hell was trying to gun for his life _this_ time?

Hyde kept his senses alert, darting his head left and right, trying to see where the orbs had been coming before, but with this, Hyde realized that awareness training with Linne had finally paid off.

A shadow instantly appeared over his shoulder and attempted to lunge at his neck with two daggers, but they were glowing in a familiar light. It was almost like his own katana, only that the blades were a cool blue instead of a burning red.

Hyde deftly blocked the attack, holding the clash for a brief second before the figure leapt away to gain some distance. Hyde caught the figure in his sights, seeing that it was a person in a high-collared black coat with a tattered end sticking out behind his right leg. His hair had been highlighted—the one-fourth piece on the front left side had been white, contrasting the remaining black.

"Gah! Who the hell are _you_!? And what the hell was that for!?" Hyde instinctively felt his neck, heavily breathing from the surprise close-quarter attack. "_Damn, that was _way _too close_."

The mysterious enemy merely stared at Hyde, as he noticed the dead stoicness that laid within his eyes. The figure stood back up straight and returned a stare back to Hyde, one that had more calmness and collectiveness compared to the original sender.

"The companion of the Princess of the Night Blade—the "Unknown Actor" on this wretched _Hollow Night_. And that sword…" The person glared at it with hatred shivering in his voice. "It's that _abominable_ Insulator. There's no mistaking it."

Hyde furrowed his eyebrows. "_Princess…_?" Hyde didn't know what he was talking about, but there was only one person that he was—_or should have been_—accompanying during this whole thing. And from what he knew, Linne was affiliated with _Night Blade_. Then again, rolling back into his memory, he supposed she did mention that at some point.

"Are you talking about Linne…?"

There was silence on the other side, but Hyde still wanted answers.

"Look, let's start with this! Just who in the hell are you!?" This one was way different than that red-haired guy. Hyde immediately held his katana tighter out of the sheer presence that this enemy was emitting, reminding him that the enemy had said something about his manifestation.

"... Why introduce myself to someone who's about to become a corpse?"

Hyde clicked his tongue, annoyed at the chalant tone of the voice. If any doubts were still in the air, they were clearly out the window now. This guy had been out to kill him, but it seemed like this enemy knew a lot more about what was going on behind the scenes. It wasn't as if he didn't believe Linne, but he felt like there was more to the story than she told him. The curiosity was starting to itch at Hyde's head.

"Then I guess I'll have to _persuade_ you to cough up the answers. And I can be _very_ persuasive." Hyde swung the katana towards the enemy, pointing the tip before him. "Especially with _this_, which you seem to hate!"

Even with the weapon pointed at him, he began to walk toward Hyde, albeit slowly.

"You're little more than a new hatchling first discovering their EXS powers. To believe that they have power that they simply do not have."

Hyde noticed the same blue blurs spanning from the hands of the enemy, but this time, they immediately exploded their arrows at him. Hyde took a step backwards and slashed at the projectiles furiously, but the moment to misdirection of attention gave the enemy enough time to close the distance, almost as if he warped right before Hyde and pushing forwards with his daggers.

Hyde swung his blade back, but there was no room for a counterattack. He managed to block the direct hit, but the power instilled in the attack had been too great to hold his ground. Hyde was sent flying back, thankfully landing onto his feet meters away. He took the time to recompose himself, as did the enemy.

"Know your place! Mewling children like you are the reasons that _assassins _like me even exist."

"Grah! That's supposed to be _my_ line! It looks like _you're_ the one causing trouble here." Hyde kept his vicious glare onto him as he readied his katana, hanging its blade downwards over his shoulder before he swung it forwards to point it at the unknown enemy. "That's why, on behalf of the Night Blade—_and Linne_—I'm going to stop you!"

For the first time, it seemed like the stoicness had peeled back slightly, but not in the way Hyde would have liked. He merely scoffed and looked at Hyde with lowly eyes, as Hyde pulled back his katana to prepare for an engage.

"_Night Blade_… I never would have thought that I'd hear that name come from your mouth—turns out you do have some knowledge on the situation. However, if that's your line, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree." His daggers were brought up behind his body, pointing his general backside towards Hyde. However, his eyes had been leering for full effectiveness. "For I am descended from the _Night Blade_ that you speak of, and carry the burden of their sins!"

"_Descended… _from the _Night Blade_? _You!?_"

The revelation had surprised him, but the enemy didn't let the thrown-off Hyde go to waste. He immediately closed the gap, moving into the air at a sharp angle. His feet were flipped towards the air as he angled himself at Hyde, unleashing a breaking speed to strike. His daggers held behind his back, charging head first.

Hyde dodged, as the assassin dropped right next to his feet. He shifted his weight from his body onto his arms and rolled out a low sweeping swipe with his legs. Hyde leapt back to avoid the follow-up, but a blue image had entered into his sight. Before he realized, a blue arrow had been driving itself to its target.

_When did he_—!?

Hyde's sword was in no position to block it, so he forced his body to duck underneath the trajectory, but that must have been what the assassin wanted Hyde to do. The next moment, he felt a blunt strike land against his abdomen—one glance revealed that the assassin had launched a kick, pushing up from the ground.

_Grah!_

Despite the assassin's looks, he packed quite the amount of weight to his physical attacks. Hyde was sent flying across the riverside plaza, bouncing his body twice before he managed to catch himself onto his feet—stabbing the katana into the ground to help with stability.

Hyde couldn't think straight from the sudden revelation that this unknown assassin had laid out, but if this person had truly been a descendant of the _Night Blade_, then it was more of a reason to beat him. He'll be able to find out the itching problem with Linne's story if he get can the assassin to tell him some answers.

Hyde took a single deep breath to psyche himself up.

"_Night Blade _descendent or not, I'm gonna have to take you down if you get in my way!"

"Then let's see how well the Insulator cuts."

"Just _watch_."

He removed the sword from the sheathed terrain and swiped the air before him with the blade. A red disk formed itself from the arc and sent itself flying towards the assassin.

The assassin ran forwards, surprising Hyde with the ballsy move, but there was another arrow that was outpacing the assassin's movements, flying towards the disk and breaking both projectiles on impact, letting him run through without issue.

Hyde wasn't going to stand still. He pushed off his feet and spun forwards in the air, slashing down with a powerful strike with his momentum.

It met nothing except the ground, breaking apart and leaving behind a small crater in the pathway. The assassin disappeared right before his very eyes, but Hyde felt a slight breeze as he landed the attack. He immediately knew that the assassin didn't _just_ disappear, turning his head over behind him.

The assassin had already been in a midair flip, trying to land another kick onto Hyde. He took up his arm and blocked the attack, but once again, the weight that was sent was heavy. It was enough to make the ground beneath Hyde crack a little, but even in the blunt pain, Hyde held resolute.

Hyde twisted the platform that the assassin was using, and lunged his arm to grab the attacker's leg. It would have been perfect, except Hyde noticed _another _arrow coming into his perception, forcing him to resort to tossing back the assassin in compulsion to swing his sword to defend against the arrow.

He didn't know what would happen if he could hit with one, and Hyde wasn't very keen on finding out.

The assassin leapt a few steps back and stood up straight again, tucking his face further down into his long collar as the night breeze blew away at the tattered end, alongside the waving of the trees. There was something too ominous about the way he adjusted it, perhaps the act was enhanced by the fact he still had the blue dagger in his hand.

It didn't really matter to Hyde though. His mind was on a different train.

_Dammit, I can't do anything towards this guy with those arrows coming out of nowhere like that! I really need to find was way to deal with them or else I'm not getting out of this alive!_

He barely kept up with any deflection and they had enough power to break through [Black Orbiter]—or rather, the correct word was to neutralise. In the same way that the arrow cancelled out his [Black Orbiter], the red disk could most likely do the same towards the arrows, but constantly shooting them out wasn't an option. It was impossible for him to match those arrows at the rate he could launch [Black Orbiter].

He had to think. If he allowed his body to move like it always did, he wasn't going to get anywhere. He needed to find the weakness in this little gimmick of the assassin. That was the game now—break through or _die_.

But still, he needed to buy time for his thoughts to collect themselves.

"What the hell do you even want with me!? I'm on Linne's side, right!? The entire reason I'm caught up in this is because I'm fighting on her behalf. Then by association, shouldn't you be on my side?"

The assassin scoffed again. "_By association_? Don't make me laugh. It is true that I'm looking for the Princess, but it is also true that I desire to fulfill her evernevering wish—to end her neverending curse. And to think, the solution is right in front of my eyes, and yet, you haven't done it yet. You still speak as if she's alive."

"Because she _is _alive, and I intend on keeping it that—!" Hyde widened his eyes upon the realization on what the assassin had said. "... Wait. You want to _kill_ Linne? She's your… supposed princess, right!? Why!? Why the hell do you want to _kill_ her!?"

"... You accompany the Princess of the _Night Blade_, and yet, you don't know what it is she is trying to achieve?" The assassin shook his head. "How foolish and idiotic."

Hyde gritted his teeth. "I _know_ what she wants. I'm _saying _that there has to be another way to save her! And as your _princess_, shouldn't you be trying to find a way to save her too!? One that doesn't involve killing her in cold blood!?"

"_Cold blood_, is it?" It was like a spark ignited within the assassin's eyes—a silent anger that held a magnitude of its own. "Once again, I'm forced to disagree with your words. You know nothing about the burdens I carry for my ancestors nor will you ever understand it. Don't act so conceited, 'Unknown Actor'."

The assassin ran forwards towards Hyde, fading out from existence and reappearing right before him and slashed his dagger upwards. Hyde made a direct block with his katana, but the assassin was much too quick. On contact, the second dagger came over from the left as the assassin spun around, lifting the Insulator upwards and away.

Hyde took his right hand off the handle and shoved it into the assassin's wrist. Even though that might have been buying only a second, perhaps two if he's lucky, any type of space was valuable in this type of close quarters combat. If his body was going to move on its own, then he needed to give it the room to do so.

It threw the assassin seemingly off-balance, allowing Hyde to regain control of his sword, immediately slashing diagonally at him. The assassin dropped onto the ground, pushing his arms out and slid-kicking into Hyde's feet. Combined with the angle of his slash, Hyde found himself fall face first into the ground, but that instance never came.

The assassin made a sideflip from his position, kicking Hyde's feet to send him on a horizontal distance. Hyde glanced back in the air, trying to worry about the enemy _and_ how he was going to stick the landing, but both matters were resolved in an instant, as the assassin reappeared where Hyde was going to land, crouching and releasing a high upwards slash to send Hyde into the air.

Direct damage wasn't a problem, thanks to the EXS, so he hadn't been bleeding from the first contact. However, he can't let being damaged part of a habit, or else his EXS would breakdown and he'll start to experience the full extent of a lethal slash.

Hyde managed to recover his posture in the air, but the assassin had already been coming up for him. There was nowhere to dodge, so he sharpened his blade and slashed forwards, sending out another red disk to intervene the approach.

However, _another_ arrow had been coming from behind the assassin to cancel it out.

_Dammit, what's with all these annoying arrows!?_

However, Hyde only needed the projectile to block the assassin's way. He watched the projectile rush forwards as the arrow crept up closer and and readied his katana to point at the red disk. He had to time it _perfectly_ and when he saw the moment, he detonated it.

"Explode!"

The red disk consumed itself, stopping with a red void that covered a large spherical area. The arrow was taken up by the attack, but the red sphere had remained for a bit longer. It must have been out of the assassin's calculations, as he widened his eyes. An inch or two more, the assassin would have been hit, but somehow, the assassin managed to instantly shift his trajectory downwards, landing onto the ground.

_Good riddance with that_.

Hyde dropped back onto the ground, feet dragging themselves on the bricked pathway.

He _needed_ to find out how to deal with those blue spheres and arrows _fast_. It's already tough enough to deal with this person on a reactionary level, given that he could close a gap in a snap, so there needed to be some sort of tactic he needed to enlist.

He needed to know how those spheres worked.

However, from what he'd seen so far, they don't have an instant denotation, nor does the assassin have to perform an obvious follow-up stance to detonate his projectile like Hyde does. Perhaps they were on a timer of some sort?

But that didn't give any notion as to how he could stop them other than dealing with the arrow once they were released. The assassin had spawned them effortlessly from the palm of his hand, unlike Hyde, who had to make a full slash forwards to get [Black Orbiter] on the field.

For now, he'll have to keep an attentive eye on all the spheres that escape the assassin's hand.

_Dammit, can't about that now! He's coming!_

As expected, the assassin disappeared once more, reappearing behind Hyde. He turned to see a dagger being lunged towards him, parrying it to the side as the assassin passed through. One hard step rebounded the assassin's direction and Hyde turned over to parry the second lunge.

And the third one came.

The fourth one followed.

Fifth attempt went and gone.

The assassin kept lunging himself, passing by Hyde countless times, each one scrapping close to his chest than the last. Hyde must have counted at least ten slashes before he got used to the attacks and slammed his foot in where he thought the next attack was coming from.

It was a successful strike, but the assassin mirrored it with his own kick, sending both participants backwards, but both of them knew the clash wasn't over yet.

They kicked off from their spots and dashed right towards each other. Their weapons struck onto one another, standing still to take the impact, before they dashed past each other to catch the other one in their tracks.

The assassin pulled out a few blue orbs once again, but Hyde's body was already in motion, not even considering them yet.

Hyde had took a further leap than the assassin and landed, spinning around and stabbing the sword into the ground at a forty-five degree angle. Like a fissure erupting out a blood spurt, a red energy pulse torn through the terrain around the feet of the assassin, causing him to jump backwards, narrowly brushing its effect.

Using the opaque ability as a cover, Hyde ran behind the attack and leapt into the colour as it faded away, catching the assassin in his sights. He focused his blade, holding it over his shoulder and slashed downwards violently at the shadow of the assassin.

But it was only that—a shadow.

The assassin had slipped past his shadow and caught Hyde just as he landed onto the ground, landing a penetrating kick into his spine. It kept drilling further in, so much that Hyde thought that it would forcily make him puke, but all that came up was spit.

The impact sent him bouncing against the pavement, face first during intervals before Hyde slid to a halt. He tried to stand up quickly, using the Insulator as his stand, but when he looked back at the assassin, an arrow had already came in close proximity.

The arrow landed a direct hit, stinging Hyde against the chest. It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would, but he could feel his chest become more compressed than usual. He couldn't breathe, but not only that, he couldn't even move much to his own surprise. His body was at a standstill, regardless of how much his mind wanted to move it. It was as if his nerves had been frozen in place and his brain was desperately trying to get back its connection.

However, the assassin was already running at him at full force, as the daggers were held tightly behind him.

Hyde couldn't do anything except for watching.

The assassin swiped his daggers forwards, smashing them into Hyde's chest and sending him flying across the plaza. His body kept going until it hit the bar railings that sectioned off the wide river.

Hyde's nerves came back online and he didn't waste a single moment, instinctively flipping himself onto the slightly dented railing, and ran along the edge, trying to get so distance between the two fighters. For the moment, it didn't look like the assassin had immediately followed, but hell if he was the assassin's top speed was. All he knew was that he was definitely faster than him.

However, Hyde now knew that getting hit by the arrows is a bad thing—leaving him open for a free attack. He imagined that it would only take a few arrows to get himself killed. Though, something about the orbs occurred to him as he ran along the tightrope like platform.

_What happen to the blue orbs that he sent out while I used [Shadow Scare]?_

Hyde didn't hear the shattering sound that indicated its usage. There was no arrows that came from that direction, nor was there any blue orbs there when he landed in his attempt to attack. It was as if [Shadow Scare] consumed the blue orbs.

_Could it be possible if an attack lands on the orbs first, arrows will never come?_

It was worth a shot, but as he thought about it, he started to have second thoughts. Even if he knew how to deal with the arrows, that only solved one of the major problems. The second one was that this assassin was generally tricky to land on any hits.

_Never mind that! He's here!_

Hyde could hear the footsteps following him, running close behind Hyde from the parallel walkway below. He noticed the instant acceleration in speed and an extended arm with a dagger looking to sweep Hyde's feet.

Hyde backflipped and angled one of feet to land against the side of the railing, pushing off to escape the area and rolling into a crouch. The assassin made a hard stop, but as he turned around, he sent out another blue orb.

Hyde had already predicted the action, and fired a [Red Orbiter] towards the attack. The assassin avoided the attack and proceeded towards him, but Hyde saw it collided with the orb, ceasing it to exist.

There wasn't a moment to celebrate on figuring out the defenses against one condition. Hyde rebounded his katana and met the assassin's gaze as the weapons clashed, pushing down onto each other.

"Seriously, _what's_ your problem here!?" Ren couldn't have helped to shout that as the assassin's cold expression drew itself before him. "All I want to do is help Linne!"

"Then you already know the answer to that."

"I'm _not_ killing her!"

"You keep letting your emotions run your mouth. People like you are the ones to die first, charging head-in towards things you don't understand."

"What _is_ there to understand!? You want to kill Linne! I want to save her! I don't care if you're from the Night Blade or not!"

"I disagree once again. In fact, it's the exact _opposite_."

"Like hell it is!"

Hyde knocked the weapons upwards as he dropped onto the ground, sweeping at the legs. The assassin leapt above the attack, but Hyde pushed himself off the ground and sent a knee towards the assassin's body. It landed, but it didn't look like it did much, as the assassin fell back from the sudden momentum onto his feet.

The assassin dashed through Hyde, but he parried the dagger slash through. A single dagger slash, but the assassin had came at Hyde with two. However, his mind was deterred from thinking about it as the assassin whispered something into Hyde's ear.

"Be in as much denial as you wish. None of it will matter once you're dead."

The assassin, drifting to a stop, sent out two blue orbs, each from a side, but Hyde turned and threw out another [Red Orbitor], aiming towards the assassin in between. The assassin leapt above the projectile, but Hyde continued, pointing the blade at it.

"Explode!"

The disk did as told, taking out both orbs before they fired. However, he converted the straight blade and twisted his shoulder, dashing forwards while using the katana's tip like a plow and expunging his strength into an angled leap, ripping the space in the way—which included the assassin.

"[Pale Bringer]!"

The attack came quickly, giving no time for the assassin to move out of the way. The assassin flipped forwards and slammed the intersection of his daggers, but the power was becoming too strong. He grunted as he pushed himself to slide past the ascending blade, nicking some of the energy it emitted.

Hyde noticed him past towards the ground, immediately stopping the skill and converting it into another one, pointing the blade down towards the assassin. A red orb appear below nearby the assassin, as the orb began to gather up energy in a visual spectacle.

"Devour!"

As Hyde seemingly floated for an extended amount of time, the orb shattered and exploded next to the assassin, who managed to barely block it in time. However, the damage was still dealt nevertheless.

The attacks were coming out quicker than before. Had it been because Hyde didn't want to give the assassin room to activate the blue orbs? Or had it been that the assassin's words got to him? Hyde didn't know himself. All he wanted to do was get this fight over with already.

Hyde landed, as the assassin distanced himself. A glare of annoyance had been slated over his stoic expression.

However, the assassin leaned his head in slightly, covering his eye. Hyde could hear a small grunt as a black light shimmered around the assassin.

After those noise, the assassin sent out another blue orb. It went out farther than usual, but Hyde immediately sent a [Black Orbitor] towards it, deciding that was already enough and proceeded to run towards the assassin. Likewise, the assassin did similarly.

However, out of the corner of his eye—

—_the arrow still launched itself._

_W-What!? I sent a [Black Orbitor] to it!_

Hyde suddenly had no more tricks to rely on with an assassin and an arrow coming from two different directions. At those speeds, they would clash at the same time. The swing was too wide to to it in one take.

Hyde stopped his body, tugging forwards before the sudden arrest, and stabbed his into the ground. A red light emerged from the sword and blasted into the ground below it—as the assassin and arrow came closer, Hyde allowed it to rip.

"[Gyre Vortex]!"

The red light sent into the ground erupted and consumed Hyde as the centerpiece. The assassin stopped and backed off as the arrow was eaten by the bleeding pillar. However, he widened his eyes as Hyde cut through his own pillar, dashing forwards towards him.

The assassin would have backed off further, but with the red light that's shining before him, he regret to check his surroundings as usual. As Hyde extended his hand out forwards, he grasped something and acted like he was pulling back a handle.

"[Red Void Arrow]!"

The assassin gazed backwards, but nothing was there. There hadn't even been traces of anything of significance, but the assassin noticed much too late. Hyde had been blowing his EXS abilities all throughout the area, leaving traces of them all around. It was one of the reasons why the assassin could see that there was going to be a skill used. That, and Hyde had been shouting out the name of his attacks or making a strong notion that something was going to be done.

However, Hyde didn't know any skills that were called [Red Void Arrow]. It was something he made up on the spot and it turned out that it worked.

He went for the real skill that he wanted to pull off.

"_One!_"

Hyde slashed upwards at the assassin, who took the attack begrudgingly.

"_Two!_"

Hyde cycled his slash, carrying the assassin's body along with the attack.

"_Three!_"

Hyde lifted his body up slightly and threw the slash at a downward angle, tossing the assassin's body onto the ground.

Before the assassin's body could get any rest, Hyde caught his feet onto the pavement, dragging the katana upwards to bring him into the air, followed by an aerial kick—one to return the favour for what happened during the first few instances of their fight.

If there was any better opportunity to use _it,_ it was _now_. Either now or _never_.

Hyde brandished his katana before him as the assassin quickly recovered and felt the light of the katana expand as he focused onto it. He tried to control his breathing to the best he could do, as he needed to resort to this all-or-nothing attack. The sword hummed a low-pitched sound, gathering the energy it needed from its user as Hyde looked up from his katana towards the assassin.

A few meters away, the assassin had been watching carefully. His breath had been better placed than Hyde, but it wouldn't have mattered after this last attack. The energy that Hyde was making was making the tattered end of the coat dangle in its outwards breeze. However, the assassin's shoulder was pointed towards Hyde as the daggers had been crossed along the blade alongside his arms. Like Hyde's light within his katana, the assassin's blue daggers had been growing in its light, shining as brightly as Hyde's.

_This is going to decide the winner._

"Two blue daggers, the Eliminator. That would make you the Assassin that wanders the Hollow Night. And that red sword, the Insulator. I supposed that would meet you're the Unknown Actor."

Both Hyde and the assassin looked over at where the voice had came from.

To assassin, it was one of dignification, one that held much more collectiveness and calmness than his current opponent. Though, that blue long-skirted uniform she wore suggested that he shouldn't get more involved with them, at least not yet. She was definitely part of the Licht Kreis, the organize that hunted the monsters of the Hollow Night and keep In-Births in check.

However, Hyde heard something else. As he laid his eyes onto the speaker from the familiar tone of voice, his eyes widened, laying themselves on the blue hair he would usually on a school day. It was a certain transfer student that he had met on her first day at their high school, Orie.

"H-Harada!? I-Is that you!? W-What are you doing here!?"

As if the tone with switched with a button, the Licht Kreis member had gasped.

"K-Kido!? I-I could ask you the same question…!"

The assassin sighed, tucking away his daggers. He turned his back away, beginning to walk away.

"Wait! Where the hell are you going!? This isn't over yet!"

"Now that the Licht Kreis member is here, I can't exactly finish you off. However, this should be enough to keep you down for me to find the Princess."

"Keep me down? What are you talking about—?"

Hyde suddenly felt a strong wound open up against his side. It wasn't bleeding, but it sure felt as painful as the real deal. He flinched and came falling down onto his knees. Hyde immediately knew where that slash had came from. It was that second slash that supposingly never came as he dash right past him.

"You two know each other, right? That should keep you two busy as I search for the Princess."

And with those words, The Assassin of the Hollow Night disappeared into the shadows.

… Hyde didn't even get a name to pin him with. He wanted to stomp his feet in frustration, but the pain had been too great to overcome. He couldn't stand properly, but he heard footsteps coming towards him. Orie had tried to catch him in case he collapsed face-first onto the ground.

"Kido, are you alright?"

"... Man, this sucks," Hyde gritted through the screaming pain.

"... Kido, please explain to me what's going on. Why are you involved with the Hollow Night?"

"... I can't." Hyde attempted to stand back up. "I have to… find Linne before that bastard does…! _Grah_!" Unfortunately, it ended up in a failure as Hyde dropped back down. "I'm not letting this fight end like this!"

Orie helped to hold Hyde upright as she stared at the determined classmate. She felt her heart shimmer away slightly, grimacing at the name he shouted out—as if the Assassin hadn't been clear enough alongside the weapon that Hyde wielded.

"... So it is you. You're the one that's been following the Princess of the Night Blade."

Hyde's desperate calls into the void turns into a desperate attempt at paughter as Orie spoke. "Ha ha… You know, I didn't expect _you_ out of all people to be part of the—how was it pronounced again—the Licht Kreis."

"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take this opportunity to take you into custody, especially with the fact that you wield the Insulator."

"Harada, please… Linne isn't a bad person! I need to go help her out! That assassin is still looking for her!"

"I'm sorry, Kido… It's how it works. If I'm fighting on behalf of the Licht Kreis as an executor, I must abide to their instructions as well."

Hyde didn't want to go down this early on. He was trying to find any old excuse he could find and throw it into Orie's face, but as Hyde looked over at her classmate, she had a sense of unease written across her expression. Out of everyone, he would say Orie is one of those people that wore their emotions on their sleeves. She obviously didn't want to do this either.

"... Harada, at least let me defeat that assassin before he gets to Linne. I can't let it end for me like this. Afterwards… I'll do what you want. As long as Linne is kept safe."

"... Kido…"

* * *

(—ነነነነ(—(—[][][][]—)—)ነነነነ—)

* * *

**A/N**

I've been playing way too much UNIST in preparation for UNICL and since I've been writing a bit of fanfiction, I thought I would drop by the Under-Night fandom to see what stories are cooking up here. Mostly because the amount of story that we get that takes place _during_ the actual game is uh… yeah. Arcade Mode isn't the best way to convey a storyline, but there's enough to grasp straws.

However, it doesn't really seem like there's much of uh… _anything_ here, which makes me sad. Though, I can't commit to an actual story here, I'm dropping this story for a type of exercise for me. It's something that didn't require much thought, but needed some effort to get rolling.

I tried to convert as many of the inputs of both Seth and Hyde into the fight scene and use them in creative ways that aren't bound by the laws of fighting games, but hold the same conceptual rules.

Of course, I made so creative changes and additions to the formula of Under Night.

Alright, I hope you enjoyed this piece of work I'm donating to the Under Night community.

…

…

… Wait, what do you mean some of the Under Night stories are melded into BBTAG?

… _Oh… That's where some of them are…_

… Well, I guess it's too late now.

Of course, feel free to play Mutual Sitaution's OST during the story.


End file.
